The residents — eight adults and three children — live in a nine-bedroom, nearly 6,000-square-foot brick mansion on one of Hartford's wealthiest residential streets. While they consider themselves a family, the city has ruled that the arrangement violates strict zoning that limits the number of unrelated residents to two people for single-family homes.

Hartford's decades-old zoning regulations define members of a family as those related by blood, marriage, civil union or legal adoption. At 68 Scarborough, there are two couples with children, a couple with no children and two individuals. The adults say they are longtime friends.

"Although unrelated by blood, the family legally owns the home together, cooks dinner together, shares childcare responsibilities and has a shared bank account," the statement read. "They now urge for a more modern definition of family and on Wednesday, they will share their plan to stay in their home."